As the number of external contacts increases, it becomes more difficult to provide a sufficiently large and dimensionally stable circuit carrier on which both the external contacts and semiconductor chips can be arranged. This is because functional disturbances often occur during the production of the electronic component or during thermal functional tests of such large electronic components. Moreover, placement of differently sized external contacts in the case of such electronic components on a planar top side of a printed circuit board is difficult, if the components are intended to be connected to a superordinate circuit substrate, for example, of a printed circuit board.